Geometee - <AUTHOR> http://geometee.com <comment><USER2> Really cool! Please consider replacing the tiny knobs with something a bit more user-friendly like sliders

<comment><USER3> Yes, please. I like the concept, but found using the dials really fiddly and unintuitive. They don't seem to "turn" like one would expect, working only off the height of the mouse cursor after starting interaction.

<comment><USER4> It was actually intuitive to me.

But I'm used to interfaces for VSTs (audio generation/effects plugins) that usually have this exact interaction mode. See [http://www.protoolerblog.com/wp- content/uploads/screenshot_O...](http://www.protoolerblog.com/wp- content/uploads/screenshot_Ohmicide.jpg) for an example of one.

(Sometimes VST knobs also have the extra of horizontal movement being a "fine- tune" mode, even, which is very handy.)

<comment><USER5> I always found it strange that VST knobs were actually sliders in disguise. After a while you get used to it, but I can see how confusing it might be to users.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have no idea what I was just playing with but I spend way more time on it than I care to admit.

<comment><USER7> Same here. I ended up making parsnips: <http://imgur.com/kYUA5nm>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Can you buy the t-shirts? There is a preview but I didn't see any link to actually buy the thing...

<comment><USER9> Ultimately I'll program the site to allow purchases. I hadn't gotten around to it, but given the interest the site's gotten recently I'm kind of kicking myself.

If there's a design you'd like on a tshirt, let me know and we can make it happen via RedBubble: <http://www.redbubble.com/explore/geometee>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is great, in around 15 minutes I have some excellent desktop wallpapers for work! The exported image is 2400x3200 and scales nicely.

<comment><USER9> It'd be great to see what you came up with! I programmed this site in my spare time and haven't really seen what others have made with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> That color picker is unusually intricate. Does it come from a library or was it made for this site?

<comment><USER12> If you have a modern browser, it's your OS color picker- the tool uses <input type="color" />.

<http://slides.html5rocks.com/#new-form-types>

<comment><USER11> Thank you both. I had no idea that HTML5 included this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I spent a long time trying to make it into the Joy Division cover before working out that it wasn't going to happen...

<comment><USER14> Maybe a bit off-topic but I enquired on Quora a few months ago on how one would go about simulating the CP1919 Cover. (I wanted it laser cut on my MacBook Pro through the services of uncover.com) and here's the answer:

[http://www.quora.com/Data-Visualization/What-would-be-a- way-...](http://www.quora.com/Data-Visualization/What-would-be-a-way-to- generate-a-stacked-time-series-from-an-audio-file-similar-to-the- CP-1919-graphic/answer/Mario-Klingemann?__ac__=1)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What is this blob protocol? I've never seen it before and Google just thinks I meant to say blog (grrr, google).

You get to it by clicking export: blob:http%3A//geometee.com/1692d5b3-b837-4181-bae4-7c6a997ab22a

Ah, found it, very interesting: <http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/FileAPI/#url>

<comment><USER16> It's the URI behind the File API:

<http://www.w3.org/TR/FileAPI/#url>

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wish this was open source. I'd love to make it animated. It'd be real neat to have something that changes from one aesthetically pleasing shape to another.

Edit: Or having the various parameters put to different aspects of music would be awesome as well.

</comment><comment><USER18> After reading "The Blind Watchmaker" I did something similar to this project -- in Visual Basic! (My excuse for using such an abhorrent language is that I was only 10 and didn't know any better).

Which makes me think that this project is ripe for a "artificial selection" mode in which you get multiple mutated copies and pick the right one, slowly directing the parameters in a 'pleasing' direction. Here's a cool video that demos Dawkins' watchmaker program from way back when: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUkL2bLFiOU>

<comment><USER19> love how VB was able to introduce maybe 1/3 of the people on this site to programming but everyone dismiss it as pure garbage.

<comment><USER20> Wow, kids. In my day it was QBasic or GWBasic.

<comment><USER19> ...changing the graphics from gorilla.bas i imagine :)

<comment><USER18> That is _exactly_ how I started! Today's walled gardens don't seem to contain the same sandpits we had in the days of DOS and friends.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Hi everyone, I'm the man behind geometee. I haven't quite finished developing it, so hadn't widely announced it.

It's really exciting to get your feedback and see the awesome things you've been creating with it.

I will revisit the knob UI based on the feedback here. These seem really intuitive to some people (normally those who play around with audio software) whereas sliders might be more usable to the majority.

Any ideas for other directions I could take this?

</comment><comment><USER21> I accidentally created a tree with way too many branches on <http://geometee.com/#!/Work005FractalTree> and now the presets load really slowly, sorry. Could you delete that?

<comment><USER9> Yeah that one can really kill your computer. In a proper desktop app the developer gets a lot more control over processing of tasks like this, but in the browser the best I can do is limit the number of branches or the depth, and hope your computer/tablet is fast enough to not get too slow. Thanks for the feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Heh, this is pretty neat.

I just noticed that there's a little color swatch on the right side of the screen that allows you to change the background color. Combine all this with a nice color scheme and you can get something that looks _really_ cool.

</comment><comment><USER23> The annoying knob UI killed any enjoyment I might have got out of this.

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't even know what it is, but seems cool.

Edit: oh, t-shirts...

</comment><comment><USER25> The default design reminds me of Joy Division.

<http://imgur.com/OaKCSUp>

</comment><comment><USER26> Please wire this up to a t-shirt printer! Maybe an artsy 3D printer-based plotter for the vector patterns?

</comment><comment><USER27> <http://cl.ly/image/1K0u1R0M0g0P>

</comment><comment><USER28> I want to buy one.

</comment><comment><USER29> Killed the back button of my browser.

</comment><comment><USER30> It's FABULOUS!

</comment><comment><USER31> I can't turn the knobs at all most of the time. I'm using a mouse on a laptop; maybe this only really works on a tablet or phone?

<comment><USER32> That part is, to me, a UI disaster. What you can do though is click and drag upwards, even out of the knob, and it will work (barely, because it's incredibly _not_ sensitive)

<comment><USER33> Yes. Those stupid knobs confused me terribly. I kept trying to move the mouse cursor as if it were my finger, using it to rotate that little notch on the knob. Because, like, it's a knob... right? I mean, I've used knobs before. That's how they work. And this is a knob. I know that, because it looks like one. EVEN THE STUPID BAR GOES ROUND THE KNOB. It's _telling_ you to rotate it. And then you rotate it, and it doesn't work.

Dear people, stop doing this.

<comment><USER34> What, you don't usually tie a string around your knobs and pull up or down, depending on how you want it to turn?

Seriously, though, once I figured out how they work (it took a few seconds), it was just fine. I don't know what all the furore is about, it's at most a minor inconvenience.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Invite HN: Phileas & Fogg, the globetrotting startup - <AUTHOR> http://phileasandfogg.com/

<comment><USER2> Cool idea but I'm not sure I understand how putting Developers and Designers in a foreign country like Costa Rica is any more productive than bringing them together somewhere domestically. Last time I checked apps aren't built with sandcastles and lobsters. Although I'd be willing to invest in something that could be built with sandcastles and lobsters.

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess the better question is why not? Technology has unfortunately become very Bay Area centric. Travel isn't for everyone, but it gives people a chance to live outside they Bay Area for a bit. The locations dont directly affect the products, but getting a new perspective on the world can't hurt. Think of it more like travel abroad programs in college.

<comment><USER2> I didn't say it needed to be in the Bay Area but I see the point. I loved traveling abroad when I was in the Navy but when you've been somewhere you've never been before the last thing you want to do is spend 14 hours behind a keyboard programming something. Especially someplace as beautiful as Costa Rica.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I approve of the name :)</comment>


Ask HN: Missing comma (Julia) - <AUTHOR>

  julia> +(2 3 4)
  ERROR: syntax: missing comma or ) in argument list
 If Julia knows that commas are missing, why can it compute the sum without commas? <comment><USER2> It can't differentiate between whether a comma is missing or a paren. This isn't a runtime error so in order for the program to run it would have to generate all possible permutations of what you could have run with corrected syntax and then output values from the multiple programs. That's not really how programming languages are supposed to work.</comment>


An investigation into the smartphone tracking industry - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html <comment><USER2> I encourage everyone to try routing your own device's traffic through mitmproxy and observing this in real time. It's eye opening.

Apps like Deliveroo, which have legtimate reasons for high accuracy location access, send your data to marketing companies on every launch with very high precision.

I've written a guide[0] about how to use mitmproxy to look at the data escaping your device.

0: [https://hugotunius.se/2019/01/23/going-spelunking-with- mitmp...](https://hugotunius.se/2019/01/23/going-spelunking-with- mitmproxy.html)

<comment><USER3> While it may not catch _everything_ , another way I've picked up on various tracking services is simply running pihole and customizing the lists based on permitted dns lookups. It's interesting and troubling just how much of my internet browsing is blocked at the DNS level on a day to day basis with no perceivable impact on what's being viewed. I do wonder how many services might start trying to hardcode IP addresses to get around such things in the future. I'll have to try mitmproxy and see what I might be missing.

<comment><USER2> Yup I do this too and I agree with your observations, about one third of my home network's DNS request are rejected with nearly no impact on my internet browsing. I've also observed the same thing when browsing the web with uBlock Origin set to block third party scripts by default. On most sites whitelisting ~20% of scripts is enough to make the site functional, the other ~80% apparently being redundant for the purpose of the site's core functionality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> One of the things I appreciate about the iPhone is the fine grained settings for location tracking. I have had to turn off access to numerous apps and have limited other apps to only using my location when I use the app.

To limit the tracking I had to personally do an audit. I noticed the location indicator was on most of the time and it annoyed me. I found too many apps using location tracking that just did not need it.

Most people will not do this. We need better laws.

<comment><USER5> Its amazing when you hear people say they appreciate being able to stop individual tracking after its defaulted.

Instead of expecting that nothing tracks you until you permit it.

FWIW: This 'ability' is not specific for Iphone

<comment><USER6> Then it works as expected. It doesn't track you before you approve it. Which 99% of us do when opening an app.

<comment><USER5> No application should `require` location services to start/let you in.

If you have `Facebook` app installed first time, upon opening the app, there should not be any requirement to access location data.

Only at the point of posting with a 'Share Location' the app should request the Location tracking. And I don't see why it then needs to be permenantly permitted from then on. (Unless manually remove again)

They are scummy tactics and I agree, people just click okay to remove the inconvenience, but the creators are creating problems in order to get those 'Allow access'.

Its gross. Almost like selling a solution to a problem you created.

<comment><USER7> > _" No application should `require` location services to start/let you in."_

Exactly this. Rejecting apps from getting into your store ecosystem that request permissions that they can't justify based on the purpose of the application should be one of the first and major things app-store curators do.

Now to enforce this with browsers as well and include things such as "push notifications".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> There was a pretty interesting talk presented at DefCon this year on tracking and other personal data being exfiltrated from mobile devices over Tor (in plaintext!!!). After noticing this activity on some end user devices, the presenters set up some exit nodes and started looking for similar traffic, and uncovered a shocking amount of data being moved about in this manner from a variety of mobile applications. Unfortunately, the presenters didn't name and shame (though they did imply some well-known brands were guilty), and it was presented at the SkyTalks venue, so no recording was allowed and the slides won't be published. But given the data that they were collecting and where the impacted users seemed to be located, it appeared like a majority of the tracking traffic they were intercepting was coming from users in China, Russia, and other states with civil liberties issues.

</comment><comment><USER9> One more reason to fight for the right to anonymous SIM cards.

No way to underestimate how important this is.

Second to it, you guys need to push for removing tracking infrastructure that Google shoves into Android.

Not a single application should be allowed access to anything amounting to a "Device ID" or fingerprinting method, implicit or explicit

<comment><USER10> One of the key points of the article is that location data itself is nearly impossible to anonymize.

Even if person had an anonymous SIM it would be trivial to identify them by the locations where they spent most of their time.

<comment><USER9> Yes, but you will need to first correlate connection data from a ton of anonymous IPs, and then send tough guys to the site to check everybody's passports at a gunpoint.

Not something automateable.

<comment><USER10> Or you just correlate the data with known locations as the NYT did in the article when they tracked the inauguration singer by knowing where she was on a single day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1) There is no Facebook, Apple and Google on the list of "location data" companies. These guys have records on you for years of tracking and it didn't cause nytimes to create a fancy article on them?

2) Funny how the only big company mentioned in the article is Apple, while iOS is far more difficult to convince to share location data with 3rd parties compared to Android.

<comment><AUTHOR> The story discusses the provenance of the data after the opening paragraph:

> _THE DATA REVIEWED BY TIMES OPINION didn't come from a telecom or giant tech > company, nor did it come from a governmental surveillance operation. It > originated from a location data company, one of dozens quietly collecting > precise movements using software slipped onto mobile phone apps. You've > probably never heard of most of the companies — and yet to anyone who has > access to this data, your life is an open book._

Is your suggestion that the NYT wait until every large tech company leaks their databases to their reporters?

<comment><USER11> Facebook, Apple, and Google don't have to leak anything. They don't conceal what they collect.

If you haven't looked at it yet, Google's dashboard is pretty eye opening. You can see where you were every minute of the day years ago.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I know of these systems and have been downloading/analyzing my personal data for years. And the press has written on the implications and risks of this data for years. I guess I don't understand what you're getting at? The NYT is not entitled to my or anyone else's data unless I give it to them.

Ostensibly, the story under discussion is interesting because it _is_ personal data for millions of users who have consented (via agreeing to terms of services) to the collection, but haven't fully grasped what happens when that data can reveal to a third party.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This data seems highly valuable to hedge funds: if a fund could pin the devices of well-known bankers and executives of potential acquisition targets, it could see deals coming before announcements. Is this legal?

<comment><USER13> Hell, track their social relations, and the same for all of their employees, estimate their personal relations with social models, quantify and predict their mood on an organizational level. Then go long or short on the company. Rinse and repeat for everything on this planet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> As a thought experiment: Imagine all that data was open and everybody could query and use it.

Because my gut tells me, it will be in a decade or two.

</comment><comment><USER15> I wish I had this data, myself. I mean, my own personal data - it would be so incredibly useful for me to be able to go back through the last years and see my location and tracking data. I could finally get those timesheets updated with correct details ..

But, alas, no. Its not available to me. Only third parties can access it.

This is a terrible situation.

<comment><USER16> You can download your google data at [https://takeout.google.com/](https://takeout.google.com/)

Not sure if this is only for EU citizens.

<comment><USER15> Yeah, its better than nothing but that's still not quite as simple as just having a database I can copy off my own phone with all the details.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you have an iPhone, you can use a utility to extract the location database: [https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/export-view-iphone- loc...](https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/export-view-iphone-location- data/)

If you have an Android, using Google Takeout would likely be the easiest route: [https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout](https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> My questions for any company that collects location data or receives it from a third party would include:

Do you associate the geo data with individualized identifiers? In other words, can individual data points be linked to one another (linkability)? (Obviously the answer is yes for whichever company this dataset came from)

Do you resell the raw data to other third parties, and if so, what kind of vetting and data controls are levied upon them? Where are these customers located? Let us see one of your contracts.

I generally think this story would have be more impactful if the Times tried to pose as a customer and bought the data from a company to expose flaws in that system. As it stands, the location companies are very willing to admit they sell this data, but they would claim that nothing bad will happen to you. Disprove that and now there's a cause for action.

</comment><comment><USER18> The US government has agreed with the US government's argument that any information transmitted over a 3rd party server is not protected by the 4th Amendment. This is why the US government will not do anything to stop or slow the mass collection of private data. They have asserted and affirmed their right to Hoover that shit in tandem.

The best way that I can see to force the government's hand on this issue is to use a dataset like the one the NYT obtained to expose a few politician's extramarital affairs. Once they realizes this information can be used against them, they'll suddenly consider it to be a very big issue.

</comment><comment><USER6> This page doesn't work for me and it doesn't show any errors...

Update: Firefox fixes it...

</comment><comment><USER19> Think of the modern Truman Burbank. The next step is to assume everything is live at all times and behave as such. Stop trying to prevent everyone being aware of each other.

Scheming is irrelevant now and if you are reversing the progress of the tribe then you should spend your days on your computer trying to come up with a new Tor and then you'll approach the end of your life knowing that all you did was try to avoid everyone's gaze so you could "get ahead."

<comment><USER20> Assuming everything is live presumes that we should have to care about what others think about any given conduct. Social justice is what this is plain and simple. Rule of law (or the absence thereof) is meaningless in modern society?

<comment><USER19> I've heard the "eye of Sauron" metaphor in a few podcasts that commentate on the ease of mass surveillance. This has less to do with individual smartphone tracking - individual smartphone users have the power to zero in on certain topics and ideas (viral) relatively instantly since news can travel along a global internet unhindered.

Chinese Social Credit automated aggregation of all citizen smartphone activity feeds is the "rule of Law". We will be economically limited by our inefficient (bad) deeds.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Work in the location tracking industry? Seen an abuse of data?

I would have thought those things go hand in hand no..

Kind of like the oxymoron: A privacy conscious social media company..

<comment><USER20> Funny you mention this. Outside the Guantanamo prison complex is a sign bearing the unit symbol of the military branch operating the facility. This is affixed to a fence bearing "maximum security" signage, etc. Displayed on this sign was their motto which contained verbiage about defending "freedom". I found this ironic as there was a prisoner staring out through the fence standing next to the sign.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> there's a very limited amount of people around the world that actually care about this those of us do our best to not allow this to happen but then there is the others, the people that don't read terms, that live for the gram etc these are the main demographic target because they're quite simply dumb. People constantly make jokes at me for wanting to be off the grid for trying to keep a low profile etc for complaining about having to accept cookies for any website you want to use these days. data mining has been big bucks for far too long and will remain that way until the masses join us which I sadly fear they never will along with the fact that these big data companies are all working with bigger government and political groups. its been this way for a long time as others have pointed out and its a sad fact that it will remain this way for the foreseeable future unless people educate themselves on these matters because the companies getting away with it will continue to and not educate the masses as that means a loss of profit.

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm waiting for instant decisions about my service worthiness based on algorithmic analysis of my data points.

If the data know that I live in a nice neighborhood and commute every day to a office park job then Facebook will expend compute cycles on showing me things of interest to me. If an inner-city poor tries to get on Facebook, it can just show them a blank page. No money to be made there.

</comment><comment><USER23> So can once and forever tell me someone why I can be tracked by a 3rd party app when I explicitly disable location services in my android phone? I'm not.talking about the device vendor or OS maker.

Can it really be so many people are so god damn stupid to leave that service on all the time or is it me here being goddamn stupid and naive :)

</comment><comment><USER24> I was about to shrug this off but quickly checked my phone - _25_ apps have access to my location?!!

</comment><comment><USER5> It would have been nice if the report listed and documented all the mobile services that were doing this and stept to clean it up as best as possible.

<comment><USER25> Wouldn't it be more tractable to list the few that _aren 't_ doing this, if there even are any?

<comment><USER5> Hmm, yes, but then you're in the realm of trying to convince non-privacy savy people to use other services that replace the tracking ones.

Its all extremely frustrating and does nothing to ease my anxiety!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> oh yeah, I'm suprised nobody is talking about Pilgrim. [https://enterprise.foursquare.com/products/pilgrim](https://enterprise.foursquare.com/products/pilgrim)

<comment><USER27> Wow, Foursquare. There's a company I haven't heard about in a hot minute.

<comment><USER26> They figured out that they can make a lot more doing enterprise-level tracking

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Reader View on mobile Safari seems to work

</comment><comment><USER29> I try to avoid sarcasm online. It can be taken the wrong way. But I would like to welcome the NYT to 20 years or so ago when Google realized that there was money in the data. Or ten years ago or so, as privacy advocates started seriously bouncing off the walls realizing that we were tagging and tracking people in a way dictators of the past could only dream of. I'm glad they might be catching up, but for a big news organization like that, it's sad to see it take so long.

I wonder if, like so many of these blow ups in the past, there'll just be a spike of public interest and then it'll all die away. One of the most amazing things about the news in the last few years is how stories that used to have international, severe impact and political repercussions just drift off into the ether now. No follow-up, no continuing coverage. It's all about immediate spikes in shares, likes, tweets, and readers. They know people don't care about the follow-up that much; heck the data tells them that. So there's no follow-up, only the next sensation.

I hope this amounts to something. I have my reservations.

<comment><USER30> > there'll just be a spike of public interest and then it'll all die away

Panama Papers, Paradise Papers. Very little has come out of this and it's so disappointing. What this says to me is that enough of the people powerful enough to change any of it are in on it. Or, there just isn't the critical mass at the bottom, and this, where we find ourselves as a global population, is the stability between comfort and outrage.

The "Or" above, maybe should be an "And".

I wonder whether one of the reasons that seemingly illogical conservatism is as successful as it is, is because the bigger the world economy gets, and the larger the population, the harder it is to change anything meaningful without wiping out a pillar-sized part of the economy, the results of which are too unpredictable for anyone in power to want to take responsibility for.

This position only leads to further conservatism, in that any changes 'we let pass' must be war-gamed to the nth degree to ensure they don't cause societal collapse.

I'm not conservative, but the above is almost the only way I can process seemingly illogical conservatism that is actually anything other than "maintaining the status quo because I'm part of it". It's almost believing their own FUD. Hubbard-style. But it might not be entirely wrong.

<comment><USER31> > seemingly illogical conservatism

I'd suggest you engage more with your fellow citizens and their ideas. Conservatives believe in their ideas just as earnestly as others and it is possible for people of good faith to disagree on fundamental issues.

<comment><USER32> Conservatism and conservatism are 2 very different things. One is a political movement, and one is an aversion to change.

Regardless of political ideology, large organizations tend towards conservatism.

<comment><USER31> Fair enough. I assumed from his comment that he meant mainstream political Conservatism.

Big-C Conservatism does of course include a lot of small-c conservatism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Nice graphics, powered by Svelte?

</comment><comment><USER25> > Work in the location tracking industry? Seen an abuse of data? We want to > hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, contact us on a secure > line at 440-295-5934

Would be nice if they clarified what the hell exactly a "secure line" means

<comment> mike-cardwell One that isn't recorded and routinely listened to by your manager?

<comment><USER25> That would seem to have already been covered by the first half of the sentence?

<comment> mike-cardwell So if you read and understood the first half of the sentence, then you must have an idea of what a secure line is then.

<comment><USER25> This doesn't seem to make any sense.

The first half isn't explaining what the second half is going to mean. It reads like two separate things of which you need to do both.

<comment> mike-cardwell It's almost as if you're parsing the sentence as a computer would.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The animation intro is detrimental to the actual article..

You need to delete the HTML element with class

`video-stepper-content`

So annoying.

if lazy : Console cmd :

`document.getElementsByClassName('video-stepper- content')[0].parentNode.removeChild(document.getElementsByClassName('video- stepper-content')[0])`

<comment><USER34> Trying to optimize your line for non-whitespace character count since I have nothing else to do right now, I just discovered $ can be used in any webpage from the browser console:

$('.video-stepper').style.display = 'none'

<comment><USER35> If we're golfing, and jQuery is there: $('.video-stepper').hide()

<comment><USER34> I tried, it's not in this article, I am really interested for a shorter solution however :-)

edit: $('.video-stepper').remove() works

<comment><USER35> Ahh, I see. No jQuery. The Chrome developer console is aliasing $() to document.querySelector()

[https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome- devtools/cons...](https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome- devtools/console/utilities#queryselector)

I didn't know it did that.

<comment><USER5> Thats actually pretty interesting.. Wonder which would take preference if I have a bespoke definition for $ in an extension/worker somewhere.

Even a browser level event listener on it. O_o

Clearly I don't have much either to do today.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Web page is broken. Only works for me if I scroll past the stupid animation before it finishes loading, otherwise it gets stuck.

<comment><USER35> None of the interactivity, and only one of the map images, but at least you can read it:

[https://outline.com/nVTtcg](https://outline.com/nVTtcg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> That's one of the reasons why I gave up smartphones.

Radiation, addiction and 24/7 workweek were some of the others.

When your phone is smarter than you something is wrong.

<comment><USER38> I've never seen any credible claim on negative implications through radiation when using smartphones. Do you know any?

<comment><USER39> There is strong anecdotal evidence that some people are affected by it. However few, or however small the effect size, it is not strictly the same thing as known zero risk.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> As I suspected, the article is nowhere near technical enough to get any sense of how third parties can tie a name to a phone.

NYT's articles about technology are usual horrible.

<comment><USER35> It does say this:

 _" In most cases, ascertaining a home location and an office location was enough to identify a person. Consider your daily commute: Would any other smartphone travel directly between your house and your office every day?"_

Then they back it up with:

 _" With the help of publicly available information, like home addresses, we easily identified and then tracked scores of notables."_

And provided the specific example of Mary Millben.

It was manual and not automated, but the tech details of finding work and home addresses, based on the two most visited spots, seems not novel. Similar for extrapolating that into a name.

<comment><USER20> Do some patent searches for the companies pioneering the technology. Read their white papers. You can begin to assemble an idea of how they do it. It's not entirely revealing and is very tedious. But you can connect the dots. NYT is somewhat half-hearted when it's not a political subject.</comment></comment></comment>


Who wants to take over my web site?  It gets 200,000 visitors per month - <AUTHOR>

I started a site many years ago which got popular really quick.  I've been neglecting it terribly, the site is around 10 years old, all static HTML, with a cult following.  It is in desperate need to be upgraded in design and functionality.
The content on the site is extremely viral, yet I don't take advantage of any social sharing, etc.
Revenue used to be $20k per month plus, with some months reaching $40k per month.  Expenses are basically just hosting, which is around $300 per month.
Due to my neglect, traffic has fallen from a high of 1 million visitors per month, down to about 200,000 visitors right now.  I only spend about 1-2 hours per week on the site upkeep, and update it only once per week.
The site still does about 4 to 5 million pageviews per month  and generates around $5,000 per month - all Adsense revenue.
I have over 130,000 email subscribers who get a weekly update email.
So here's the deal:  The site has huge potential, but I've lost the desire to work on it.  I have a vision for it, I can see it as plain as day, and I know I can make it as successful as it once was, and even beyond that, but I really don't have the time or desire to make it happen by myself.
I don't want to sell the site because I know it has huge potential.  And I don't want to outsource developers and manage them.  I don't have the time or energy to oversee this.
So I'm looking for someone who can take the ball and run with it.  Someone who is a great coder and loves to learn and test things.  Someone who will basically take this site to the next level without me having to oversee everything.
I do have one requirement:  This person has to be in the Bay Area, since that's where I live.  I think it's important that we have face-to-face meetings as we grow this.
I'm willing to share profits with this person above and beyond what the site is currently making.  I think this is a great opportunity for an ambitious hacker.
Let me know whatever questions you have.
Email me if you're interested, or leave a comment
Email: email@example.com <comment><USER2> Low reputation account. Won't name the site. Questionable e-mail address. Promises a site that supposedly generates 5k a month with almost no work. Looks legit.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't blame you for being skeptical. I probably would be too. But this is a legitimate opportunity.

Several people have already emailed me. I'll be meeting with folks face to face, it would be stupid of me to lie about anything here.

As proof, I will show prospective partners a front-page Wall Street Journal article that included a link to my site along with a quote from me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I manage several domains and would love to hear more. Please contact me Hacker @ (my username) dot Org

</comment><comment><USER4> What are you going to do after you sell your web site?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't want to sell it. I want to make the site back into a cash cow and I'm willing to share the profits.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> whats the name of website?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd rather not reveal that here. The site is family friendly. Not adult nature, gambling, etc.

<comment><USER4> Why not reveal if you want to sell it?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not interested in selling it. I feel there's a lot of low-hanging fruit in growing the site and it would be stupid to sell it at current valuation.

<comment><USER4> What are you suggesting then? Are you looking for a co-founder?

<comment><AUTHOR> Looking for someone to run and grow the site for share of the profits.

<comment><USER4> What's your plan of attracting such partner if you are not even willing to share the name of your web site?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


What do doctors say to 'alternative therapists' when a patient dies? Nothing - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/03/what-do-doctors-say-to-alternative-therapists-when-a-patient-dies-nothing-we-never-talk

<comment><USER2> 'I nudge the door shut with my foot, and sit down. "I have lost patients to all of those treatments," I tell her quietly.'

But she never lost patients to traditional therapies? What a science-free article. This is the closest the article comes to an argument.

'We now know that many of these therapies are not only unhelpful but are downright dangerous.'

The doctor complaining about the arrogance of the patient in an environment where cancer is becoming more and more common and "modern medicine" can provide no fundamental way to address this.

Also this has nothing to do with Hacker News..</comment>


Updating Google Maps with Deep Learning and Street View - <AUTHOR> https://research.googleblog.com/2017/05/updating-google-maps-with-deep-learning.html <comment><USER2> There's an additional challenge in Taiwan, where due to the superior pinyin transliteration system being politically unpalatable (because it originates with the self-described communist government of mainland China), they have eschewed pinyin and have never settled on one consistent romanization scheme for street names.

Therefore in Taiwan there are places where you can see the street name spelled in different ways on two sides of the same street.

Of course this isn't a problem for the Chinese characters, only for the romanized spellings, to the extent those are of interest to Google's data collectors.</comment>


The New Mac Pro Is Apple's Chance to Make a PC - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/31/18646982/wwdc-2019-apple-mac-pro-new-updates <comment><USER2> They could just release a machine with the cheese greater shape and design, anodise it gold or something to set it apart from the old one and put modern components inside.

With the rise of 12C/24T CPU's with decent IPC (Ryzen 3900X) for $500 and decent cost effective Vega 56/64 or RTX2060/70 class hardware apple could really miss the boat.</comment>


Bill to repeal 1099 small business paperwork bill clears Congress - <AUTHOR> http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2011/04/05/bill-to-repeal-1099-paperwork-burden.html

<comment><USER2>
        The president supports repeal of the 1099 provision,
        but he doesn't like how the bill makes up for the revenue
        that would be lost: It requires people who receive higher
        subsidies for health insurance than they should have to
        repay this money to the government.

What, exactly, would cause people to receive higher subsidies than they need? And how would the 1099 forms have fixed this?

<comment><USER3> _What, exactly, would cause people to receive higher subsidies than they need?_

And how is making people pay back money they should not have gotten in the first place a bad thing?

Maybe the the whole "people getting money to which they are not entitled" plays a role in government finance shortfalls.

<comment><USER2> I wasn't saying it was a bad thing. I was curious how this would have led to people getting money that they should not have gotten.

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry, I was commenting on this puzzling statement: "The president supports repeal of the 1099 provision, but he doesn't like how the bill makes up for the revenue that would be lost"

How in the world could the president be against reclaiming money from people who should not have gotten it in the first place?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not to sound bitter or anything, but I suppose this as the silver lining of losing the 1st and 4th amendment is better than nothing.</comment>


Ask YC/HN: Freelancers, what do you use to organize your time/cleints/invoices? - <AUTHOR>

I'm moving out west and I'm going to freelance for a while (I do a little now, but it's easily managed).  As I pick up more, I want to be as organized as possible, since i'm not a naturally organized person.<p>What software/tools/tips do you have for someone about to go full-time in freelance/startups? <comment><USER2> Depending on how much work you plan on doing you might take a look at QuickBooks, which can do cool stuff like keep track of all the checks you are writing. If your on linux might want to try: <http://www.gnucash.org/>

If you want something simple, try: <http://bambooinvoice.org/>

I recommend against writing your own software. (Although we did write our own timekeeping application -- which we license to another local company)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been pretty happy with FreshBooks for invoicing, etc.

</comment><comment><USER4> I made my own software for everything recordkeeping-related called Exponent. Aside from clients, vendors, prospects, invoices, orders, inventory, payroll, credit card processing, expense tracking, and bank account reconciliation, it does my taxes for me, which is nice.

</comment><comment><USER5> I was dissatisfied with the time tracking options out there -- they're pretty much all built for managers -- so I (interaction designer) built my own:

<http://letsfreckle.com>

It doesn't have invoicing (yet) but it's coming.</comment>


How the ARM32 Kernel Starts - <AUTHOR> https://people.kernel.org/linusw/how-the-arm32-kernel-starts <comment><USER2> This article starts out talking about Linux address space layout. I've heard Solaris sometimes allocated userspace pages in the upper half of 64-bit address spaces. I'm guessing that by this point, it's too baked into Linux to change.

But, if you ever find yourself writing an OS, consider running userspace as much as possible near the top of a 64-bit address space. When the first 13 bits of a 64-bit pointer are set, a pointer interpreted as an IEEE-754 double comes out as NaN. The NaNboxing an NuNboxing tricks used by many dynamically typed programming languages become no-ops if all of your userspace pages are in the top 2 petabytes of the address space.

<comment><USER3> On the other hand, if you ever find yourself writing a programming language, consider making it statically typed.

In the world of mobile devices where CPU is battery life, why create a language that is ~10x slower for no user benefit and makes people contemplate about designing the whole OS around its performance issues?

<comment><USER2> Well, NaN boxing/NuN boxing would also allow you to more densely encode algebraic data type variants in statically typed languages in the case where at least one variant is a IEEE-754 double, some of the variants are references/pointers, and none of the variants take more than 8 bytes.

Granted, it's not a common use case. Neither Rust nor OCaml use this space optimization, but they could. OCaml (at least used to, back in the early 2000s) made the maximum tuple/object size smaller in other to have some bits (8 bits, IIRC) to store the variant in the object header. I'm not actually sure how Rust decides how many bits to dedicate to encoding the variant, and I have very little knowledge of GHC internals.

I'm a big fan of Rust (and to some extent, C++), but there's a ton of CPU time being spent on JavaScript execution worldwide.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So, the 'linusw' in the link[1] means it's an article of Linus, or some people else also named Linus?

[1] [https://people.kernel.org/linusw/how-the-arm32-kernel- starts](https://people.kernel.org/linusw/how-the-arm32-kernel-starts)

<comment><USER5> [https://github.com/linusw](https://github.com/linusw)

<comment><USER4> You are right. Linus Walleij's name is on the list of kernel maintainers[1].

[1] [https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/lin...](https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/MAINTAINERS)

</comment></comment></comment><comment> jagged-chisel [Linux], no?

<comment><USER6> Yes, kernel.org is the archive for the Linux kernel. I didn't realize that they publish articles though, which is pretty neat.</comment></comment>


You Don't Need To Learn To Code - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcolabs.com/3020126/no-you-dont-need-to-learn-to-code

<comment><USER2> The article raises some Interesting points, even if all conflated under the banner of 'everyone should code' being wrong.

"Not everyone enjoys coding" Sure, in which case there's no point doing something you don't like. I do think however that everyone should be encouraged to give it a go and the barrier to entry should be low. Indeed it is getting lower with sites like codeacademy.org. My personal opinion is that basic coding (like that currently taught in UK universities) should be a mandatory class in high school alongside mathematics since the exposure and insight into the fundamental technology of the day is immensely useful.

"Not everyone is good at coding" Absolutely, the reference to academic programming and 'scripting' is absolutely true and as pointed out does not mean that the code solves problems inadequately. In fact I've experienced smart programmers go through this and completely miss the point that that they are hired to solve problems. Programmers can become obsessed with the style and cleanliness of their code – at the end of the day, the real aims should be maintainability and correctness, which are similar but not entirely the same.

"Code can't solve every problem" True story. Just like philosophy or mathematics, it's a tool in a box. There are always going to be crazies who take things to extremes, and let's face it, many programmers are somewhere on the spectrum and tend to have an idealistic outlook on life.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think when people say, "Everyone should learn to code", they are referring to at least understanding the basics of how things work. Coding really helps develop problem solving skills. I don't think they mean everyone should become developers or change their professions. This takes it a little far.

</comment><comment><USER4> Learn to code should be a skill and a hobby that people can pick up, not a requirement to get a better life / to advance into the future.</comment>